Spring has definitely sprung and Summer is on its way!

The students, teachers and helpers have been busy this term with planting, maintaining and weeding our Kitchen Garden. The chooks are doing well and we have enjoyed having the variety of colours in our collection of the eggs. Some shells are blue/green and perfectly fine to eat. We are blessed to have such sunny coloured yolks. No doubt due to the varied greens in our chooks diets. If you have time, pop in to the garden and take a look at the Rooster. He is very beautiful with superb colouring and a fine show of tail feathers.
The infant classes are really enjoying their fortnightly visits to the garden and kitchen. Their enthusiasm is infectious! We love the fact that we are seeing new faces to help due to the infants having a regular time. We've said it many times before but the program needs volunteers and with help, our students shine in the Kitchen Garden program.

This term has also seen the commencement of a project working with a Japenese Artist Yutaka for Palimpsest. Students from 3/4H  have been working hard removing hedges from the front of the heritage building. Native Millet has been sown and we await it's growth. From the harvest of the millet, a flour will be milled and bread made in solar ovens the student's will design and construct. Great job Mrs Halls and 3/4H!

Glorious food, weather in the final weeks of Autumn

Literacy Group 4 were busy helpig to pull out the weeds that are growing very well in this mild Autumn weather!! The students are alwasy willing to get their hands dirty. They talk of satisfaction when they see the patch of garden bed that they have cleared of all the nasty weeds. Our chooks thanks us for some of the weeds, particularly thistles.

Harvest from the garden this week included, eggplants, mint, baby fennel, parsley, small yellow and red peppers, chilli, superb iceberg lettuces, rainbow chard, zucchinis and basil. The chooks have not been laying very much of late so eggs have been few and far between!

Our menu in the kitchen this week was:
Eggplant Curry
Zucchini Carbonara
Watermelon Salad
Omelette Vegetable Stack

It's been wonderful to hear about some of the students in this group completing their homework challenge of creating a simple 3 course meal at home. The inspiration for this was Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day which was on the 16th May. We look forward to hearing from more of the students when they complete it. Thanks to all of you for your support.

As always, this program would not be possible without the support of volunteers. It's been wonderful to have you in the kitchen. Our thanks go to Fay, Anne, Tammy, Nathan, Gerard, Julie, Berryl, Donna, Gary, Amber and Leanne. The students love it when someone they have invited to come and help joins us in the kitchen. They are so keen to show you what they can do!

The delicious food prepared by Literacy Group 4

It was all hands on deck for getting this beautiful meal together. The menu consisted of Pumpkin Burgers, a salad of the imagination, Herb Polenta and Bread Rolls.
The Pumpkin Burgers were a hit as was the Herb Polenta! We welcomed Gary, who joined us for the first time in the kitchen. Thank you for your help.

Something new for Wentworth's Kitchen

There is a new display in the dining room and the children love it! The dining tables that were bought with the money given to the program by the P&C have all had a brand new coat of paint are looking like new. The posies created from the flowers and leaves in the garden were done by Mrs Vines' group this week. Mrs Vines shared some of her wonderful tips for flower arranging. Thank you.

It's all about herbs...

 

The garden classes this week have been focusing on the herbs we are growing. The children are creating herb posies that will be given as gifts at this week's Mother's Day Devonshire Tea on Friday. Now that Kitchen and Garden classes are run with Literacy Groups, we discussed the different spelling of Thyme and Time. We labelled all the different mints that grown in the garden and identified the differences of Italian Flat Leaf Parsley and Curly Leaf Parsley. There were lots of herby beautiful smells, some stronger than others. Above are pictures of Rosemary and Russian Tarragon.

 

Wentworth Show with the Kitchen Garden program

Thank you to all the helpers over the Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Wentworth Show. They were Travis, Mitch, Holly, Jacqueline, Jameika, Chloe, Murphy, Nellie, Josh, Matthew and Amber. There were even some extra Hancock helpers! Thanks also to the parents who got them there; we really appreciate your support. We served the public Cheesy Herb and Silverbeet scones. Thanks to 4/5H and especially 2/3G who did the lion’s share of the cooking. Over the 2 days, the children received a total of $141.15 in loose change donations which is wonderful!

Very big thanks to all the helpers that are coming along to our kitchen and garden sessions. It means so much to have your help and the children love having you there.

This year the Kitchen Garden Program’s green eggs were entered in the Produce and Preserve section and a selection of 10 Vegetables was entered in the Vegetables section. It was very exciting to see a prize of First for the eggs and A Special Prize for Best Exhibitor in the Vegetables Junior section! Well done to our lovely white chook and to Vince and the children who work so hard in the garden.

Pizza, Salad, Vegetable Lasagne and Rosemary and Vine Fruit Bread

The Grade 6 class are undertaking the Pizza Party Unit from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden "Tools for Teachers" resource. This term we have made our own Pizzas with different flavourings in the Kitchen sessions - Potato and Rosemary, Pumpkin, Chilli and Fetta. The picture above shows a simple Pizza Napoletana made with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. The children have been working hard in their follow up sessions in the afternoon, to determine whether it is best to make their own pizzas or buy them in. They have decided based on their findings that they will make their own and we are closer to working out what the toppings will be. They have created surveys, collected data and then graphed this data. We have worked on fractions to determine how many slices each Pizza should be cut into.

The above picture also shows a beautiful green salad with crisp baby radishes, a vegetable lasagne with pumpkin and silverbeet and Rosemary and vine fruit bread.  Delicious!!